Dezeen Magazine

Jacqueline Lung's steel Archytas sunglasses feature screw-fixed lenses

Graduate shows 2016: Rhode Island School of Design graduate Jacqueline Lung has bent, welded and sanded strips of stainless steel to form frames for a pair of sunglasses.

Lung's eyewear is named Archytas after the ancient Greek mathematician who invented screws, because these are what holds the circular grey mirror lenses in place – three for each.

The steel curves around the glass, arching in the centre to create a bridge over the nose.

Archytas Sunglasses by Jacqueline Lung

"Most eyewear designs are driven by form and function," Lung told Dezeen. "Form and function certainly play big roles in my work, but it always begins with the materials."

Lung created the sunglasses as part of her degree project at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), for which she also formed jewellery pieces from duct tape and concrete.

Archytas Sunglasses by Jacqueline Lung

Each pair of Archytas glasses in handmade by the designer, who believes in architect Mies van der Rohe's saying "God is in the details".

"I didn't have a target audience in mind when I made them, but I would imagine someone with an appreciation for details and something different wearing them," said Lung.

Archytas Sunglasses by Jacqueline Lung

"I have been wearing them all over the RISD campus as well as displaying them at the RISD Museum store, and people from all age groups and genders have expressed interests in them," she added.

The glasses will initially be sold as a limited run of five pairs, priced at $570 (£395), which will be released on 11 June and available from Lung's website.

She plans to release more editions in the future, in small batches of 10 or 20, but doesn't plan to mass produce the designs.

Archytas Sunglasses by Jacqueline Lung

"Each pair is handmade and I love making them and working with the materials," said Lung. "I don't think I would be comfortable handing them to be mass produced in a factory on a much larger scale."

Other unusual materials for eyewear frames include a new biodegradable plastic, which was used to form a collection by Crafting Plastics that debuted in Milan earlier this year.

In 2014, musician Will.i.am launched his own eyewear range with designer George Gorrow, while Norwegian label HAiK collaborated with eyewear company Kaibosh on a collection of reversible sunglasses.